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My final thoughts on my now-sold Series S

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Tschumi

Member
In summary, I'd say if you don't own an XSX or PS5, a XSS is a genius move.

I made a thread earlier, voicing my thoughts on the Series S and asking if GAF thought i should sell it. GAF suggested I sell via poll (so this is relevant to the majority of people who responded to that post) and I agreed. Took me a while to get my ass in gear but I'm selling it now.

I didn't sell it because I hate Xbox or anything, but it is mostly because i have a PS5 now and I haven't played the XSS since it arrived.

Anyway that was all covered in the previous thread, I'm just going to give my take on the experience of owning an XSS for anyone who might want the info for their own decision making.

Positives:
  • Has all the cross platform titles PlayStation has, so you're not missing out there.
  • You can pair your controller to an account, so signing in and turning on your controller is better than in the so-far buggy PS5.
  • The basic controller layout, including the iconic face buttons from the OG controller, remains legit.
  • You have access to Red Dead Redemption 1 and the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection, both of which are unavailable on the Sony store, at least for me.
  • You have access to a small selection of OG Xbox titles, including the excellent Gladius and great-but-oddly-button-mapped SSX 3.
  • Forza Horizon 5 is badass, nobody can deny that.
  • If you are going to use Gamepass, it's pretty much purpose built for it and you'll find it to be entirely adequate.
  • It will cost way less than the other current gen consoles, even when scalped, and i personally found the graphics to be a jump on the previous generation so it's objectively worth the upgrade.
  • No more stacks of disc cases!
  • Legally (at least, without risk of banning) use emulators like retroarch (Dreamcast, gcn, ps2, more) , duckstation, ppsspp (extremely easy to use), etc, to play all your old games in HD with graphical boosts. This includes PSP titles, Chinatown Wars was so amazing i made a thread out of it.
  • I don't know much about cloud gaming but apparently this is a beast for that too.
  • There's a promise of some genuinely great titles coming to the console, TES6, Starfield, and much else.

Negatives:
  • I found the UI to be a bit clunky and inefficient, but this might just be because I'm used to the late generation ps4 interface, which was very polished in my experience.
  • I often had "woops, try again later" errors while paying for games. Two or three times per purchase.
  • If you don't want to do gamepass, the games on offer don't really justify their full price.
  • Exclusives at this point entirely failed to grab my attention the way Sony ones did, including Infinite and Forza.
  • The included controller feels very basic, it was actually slippery to pick up and i dropped it a few times. I think it's like this to motivate you to buy an elite controller.
  • i found the sticks to be too tall, the d-pad clicks sound like the finger clickers latin dancers use.
  • no more stacks of disc cases.
  • this only counts if you're in my situation, but although it's easy to change your console region on the fly, you can lose access to half the games you own if you reset your console. (Additional note: i didn't just lose access to all the games from one region, i lost access to a random selection of games from both regions, still on my hard drive, unavailable)
  • retroarch is fantastic, but it can be really awkward to set up, and you can only fit a few games (even after compression) in the 20gb-limit hard drive folder.
  • Bethesda are having a lot of hope invested in them, but they haven't really shone reliably since Skyrim.
  • The price of expanded storage is a rort, a la PS Vita memory cards, and this console has pretty small internal storage, especially if you partition it for a dev mode drive (i don't recommend this, go for whitelisted retroarch via their discord), so it'll be good to have unlimited data if you're going to be shuffling through gamepass titles.
In summary, I'd say if you don't own an XSX or PS5, a XSS is a genius move. If you still have a lot of games to get through on your PS4 Pro though you could probably delay next gen until you can get a XSX or PS5 at RRP.

Aite, just closing this chapter in my gaming life, goodwill to Series and PS owners, all.

Note: why don't i like gamepass? That's for another thread. Two general reasons would be that i prefer to outright own things, and I would never play anything long if i had access to a giant library of "free" titles.
 
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MuE55al.jpg
 

ReBurn

Gold Member
I'm holding my white Series controller now that came with my Fortnite Series S. I don't get the slippery comment. The grips are textured and rough as are the edges of the sticks. Did they make a smooth Series controller?
 

Tschumi

Member
I'm holding my white Series controller now that came with my Fortnite Series S. I don't get the slippery comment. The grips are textured and rough as are the edges of the sticks. Did they make a smooth Series controller?
Maybe I've had dry hands through winter? Maybe if you try to pick it up with the ends of one of the grips? The way my console was arranged on a charging stand on a crowded shelf meant i was picking it up with two fingers on the end of the left grip.
 

ReBurn

Gold Member
Maybe I've had dry hands through winter? Maybe if you try to pick it up with the ends of one of the grips? The way my console was arranged on a charging stand on a crowded shelf meant i was picking it up with two fingers on the end of the left grip.
It's smooth on the face and by the bumpers. Maybe that's it.
 
Do we get the “ I bought a series s again” thread at the end of the year when everything has played out op?

Sounds like you were looking for reasons to hate it and not actually enjoying what it is…a cheap way to get into next gen gaming
 

Bo_Hazem

Banned
I'm holding my white Series controller now that came with my Fortnite Series S. I don't get the slippery comment. The grips are textured and rough as are the edges of the sticks. Did they make a smooth Series controller?

I think he has sweaty hands. Mine are so the room needs to be cold all the time.

OP, you're cleansed and enlightened towards the right path.

quBCXcp.jpg
 
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Tschumi

Member
Do we get the “ I bought a series s again” thread at the end of the year when everything has played out op?

Sounds like you were looking for reasons to hate it and not actually enjoying what it is…a cheap way to get into next gen gaming
I think my positives and summary both kinda acknowledge those gold plated truths

I was playing it in good will, looking for positives, saw plenty, saw a few negatives too, in the end i still recommend it
 

Tschumi

Member
It's pretty funny that certain posters seem convinced that this post is anti-XSS without, clearly, reading it, and just get defensive and post groan'y gifs, while I'm here saying it's a "genius move" to buy an XSS.
 

Paasei

Member
TL;DR It is fine for lack of anything better as the better ones simply are hard to get. Digital only still not worth it, though.
 
Are you a scalper by any chance? Why would anyone do that? Make a thread, please.

Its Me Devil GIF by Rob Zombie
Why would i sell my S if i planned to scalp the X? I sold it with a loss and also had to pay more the new one. The X was better of course, but not 300 bucks better and in that case even 400 bucks because last week commercial resellers offered nearly 600 bucks for used X consoles. Easy decicion, S is great.
 

Soosa

Banned
I made a thread earlier, voicing my thoughts on the Series S and asking if GAF thought i should sell it. GAF suggested I sell via poll and I agreed. Took me a while to get my ass in gear but I'm selling it now.

I didn't sell it because I hate Xbox or anything, but it is mostly because i have a PS5 now and I haven't played the XSS since it arrived.

Anyway that was all covered in the previous thread, I'm just going to give my take on the experience of owning an XSS for anyone who might want the info for their own decision making.

Positives:
  • Has all the cross platform titles PlayStation has, so you're not missing out there.
  • You can pair your controller to an account, so signing in and turning on your controller is better than in the so-far buggy PS5.
  • The basic controller layout, including the iconic face buttons from the OG controller, remains legit.
  • You have access to Red Dead Redemption 1 and the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection, both of which are unavailable on the Sony store, at least for me.
  • You have access to a small selection of OG Xbox titles, including the excellent Gladius and great-but-oddly-button-mapped SSX 3.
  • Forza Horizon 5 is badass, nobody can deny that.
  • If you are going to use Gamepass, it's pretty much purpose built for it and you'll find it to be entirely adequate.
  • It will cost way less than the other current gen consoles, even when scalped, and i personally found the graphics to be a jump on the previous generation so it's objectively worth the upgrade.
  • No more stacks of disc cases!
  • Legally (at least, without risk of banning) use emulators like retroarch (Dreamcast, gcn, ps2, more) , duckstation, ppsspp (extremely easy to use), etc, to play all your old games in HD with graphical boosts. This includes PSP titles, Chinatown Wars was so amazing i made a thread out of it.
  • I don't know much about cloud gaming but apparently this is a beast for that too.
  • There's a promise of some genuinely great titles coming to the console, TES6, Starfield, and much else.

Negatives:
  • I found the UI to be a bit clunky and inefficient, but this might just be because I'm used to the late generation ps4 interface, which was very polished in my experience.
  • I often had "woops, try again later" errors while paying for games. Two or three times per purchase.
  • If you don't want to do gamepass, the games on offer don't really justify their full price.
  • Exclusives at this point entirely failed to grab my attention the way Sony ones did, including Infinite and Forza.
  • The included controller feels very basic, it was actually slippery to pick up and i dropped it a few times. I think it's like this to motivate you to buy an elite controller.
  • i found the sticks to be too tall, the d-pad clicks sound like the finger clickers latin dancers use.
  • no more stacks of disc cases.
  • this only counts if you're in my situation, but although it's easy to change your console region on the fly, you can lose access to half the games you own if you reset your console. (Additional note: i didn't just lose access to all the games from one region, i lost access to a random selection of games from both regions, still on my hard drive, unavailable)
  • retroarch is fantastic, but it can be really awkward to set up, and you can only fit a few games (even after compression) in the 20gb-limit hard drive folder.
  • Bethesda are having a lot of hope invested in them, but they haven't really shone reliably since Skyrim.
  • The price of expanded storage is a rort, a la PS Vita memory cards, and this console has pretty small internal storage, especially if you partition it for a dev mode drive (i don't recommend this, go for whitelisted retroarch via their discord), so it'll be good to have unlimited data if you're going to be shuffling through gamepass titles.
In summary, I'd say if you don't own an XSX or PS5, a XSS is a genius move. If you still have a lot of games to get through on your PS4 Pro though you could probably delay next gen until you can get a XSX or PS5 at RRP.

Aite, just closing this chapter in my gaming life, goodwill to Series and PS owners, all.

Note: why don't i like gamepass? That's for another thread. Two general reasons would be that i prefer to outright own things, and I would never play anything long if i had access to a giant library of "free" titles.

Nice to know.

I mean, really, because I did wonder what did you do after the thread, and while people always cry "who cares what you did?!" it is much more interesting to read experiences vs. reading "lol nobody cares about what you did"-posts.

Kind of ironic that people think that you should not post this long and quite interesting analyzis, while they think that their "I dont care" posts are somehow more interesting/better.

Nobody forces people to read threads like this, yet they come and say that it is waste of time. weird.

I agree to most of your points, in my personal opinion, series s is waste of resources and only potential it have, is to hinder what series x games could be. But because majority are also released on PC -> I guess adding series S profile doesnt be that bad, because they already have to think about all the different PC configurations.

I bought series x few days before xmas as they are now available on stores here. (not talking about hardware differences now, just about experiences)

Series X = "relaxed casual rental box."

PS5 = "serious collectors/gamers box."

In the meaning of that while PS5 is kind of like traditional system, for I buy certain games (physical) and I value the system + games more, series x is kind of like buying movies vs. renting them, most of it's games are "try it and forget it" kind of stuff, so I would not want to buy them.

But, because I got gamepass ultimate for ~94€ for 3 yrears aka super cheap -> I dont HAVE TO care about value of games, I can just try it out, delete it and not feel guilty at all by wasting money.

I have gamed halo and forza, but honestly I dont really care about them that much, yeah they are ok, but nothing that I cant live without. And because they were "free" -> I can play 15mins and stop, without thinking that it is waste of money.

But also because of gamepass, I have been playing aliens: fireteam with PC owning friend, which is great! the game isnt that epic, but it is nice to have it "free".

My final conclusion is:

PS5 + series X complete each other, owning them both gives the best of the both worlds. Exclusives and (personal preference) better controller + overal experience are offered by PS5, and series X offers relaxed casual gaming where I can test out games I would never pay for, and also great exclusives in the future (starfield).

I havent had series s, but I could bet that it would feel "less" than series x, and not something that completes PS5. At least on 4k tv.
And saving few hundred is not worth it at all, no point to get series s when X offers superior experience + disc drive. For kids / bedroom system it is ok, but series x is just so good that it is not worth it otherwise.
 

Tschumi

Member
Can’t wait for tomorrow’s thread where you tell us what ply of toilet paper you finally decided to wipe your arse with.

(Staying on topic, if there is one, that’s one convoluted list of negatives).
The positives are pretty subjective too!!

One ply, cheap IKEA roll, had to use more squares than my average, but i felt like a prize fighter after unloading such a weighty turd
 

Tschumi

Member
Nice to know.

I mean, really, because I did wonder what did you do after the thread, and while people always cry "who cares what you did?!" it is much more interesting to read experiences vs. reading "lol nobody cares about what you did"-posts.

Kind of ironic that people think that you should not post this long and quite interesting analyzis, while they think that their "I dont care" posts are somehow more interesting/better.

Nobody forces people to read threads like this, yet they come and say that it is waste of time. weird.

I agree to most of your points, in my personal opinion, series s is waste of resources and only potential it have, is to hinder what series x games could be. But because majority are also released on PC -> I guess adding series S profile doesnt be that bad, because they already have to think about all the different PC configurations.

I bought series x few days before xmas as they are now available on stores here. (not talking about hardware differences now, just about experiences)

Series X = "relaxed casual rental box."

PS5 = "serious collectors/gamers box."

In the meaning of that while PS5 is kind of like traditional system, for I buy certain games (physical) and I value the system + games more, series x is kind of like buying movies vs. renting them, most of it's games are "try it and forget it" kind of stuff, so I would not want to buy them.

But, because I got gamepass ultimate for ~94€ for 3 yrears aka super cheap -> I dont HAVE TO care about value of games, I can just try it out, delete it and not feel guilty at all by wasting money.

I have gamed halo and forza, but honestly I dont really care about them that much, yeah they are ok, but nothing that I cant live without. And because they were "free" -> I can play 15mins and stop, without thinking that it is waste of money.

But also because of gamepass, I have been playing aliens: fireteam with PC owning friend, which is great! the game isnt that epic, but it is nice to have it "free".

My final conclusion is:

PS5 + series X complete each other, owning them both gives the best of the both worlds. Exclusives and (personal preference) better controller + overal experience are offered by PS5, and series X offers relaxed casual gaming where I can test out games I would never pay for, and also great exclusives in the future (starfield).

I havent had series s, but I could bet that it would feel "less" than series x, and not something that completes PS5. At least on 4k tv.
And saving few hundred is not worth it at all, no point to get series s when X offers superior experience + disc drive. For kids / bedroom system it is ok, but series x is just so good that it is not worth it otherwise.
Really appreciate your thoughtful input, and considered evaluation of my op. No forced levity required here!
 
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